Worcester 2's win away from home 4-0

Worcester 2nd Match Report
Stratford Vs. Worcester Sat 5th December 2015
Result: 0 – 4
Worcester 2nds day started early this week with most of the squad turning up to support the 1st team who were playing on the nunnery astro, once the 1st team game had finished the seconds made their way to the busy car park and gathered in the normal spot with car parking spaces in short supply Tom Dalton decided to squeeze his way into a space that was extremely tight to get in to but with a certain level of skill he parked his car, which did resemble whacky races. Tom was first on the cake list.

Watling who was also trying to organise his troops was also victim to road rage and was nearly run down. The Fuzz are looking for a young driver who scores goals… Don’t worry lads most of you won’t get looked at. DS might want to keep his head down for the next week or 2.

With the car park incidents the talk of each car the mood changed to the game that could take the 2nd team to the top of the table should they beat Stratford. Worcester arrived at the venue in good time and began the pre match warm up with verbal assaults on anyone who dared to say anything out loud as always Ollie Davis escaped this friendly banter with his normal ninja like stealth. However the room fell silent when Joe Baker showed everyone how he gets ready for a game with a pre match shower for him and the stick…. Yes we all wondered but it has something to do with grip.

Puggy got the real warm up going on the tennis courts next to the pitch, Henry Jeff’s saw an opportunity to show his football skills which quickly turned in to anti-skill with a 1,2 1,2 combo with himself, again more silence and then laughter…. As the push back loomed Watling explained this would be a tough game but with the squad working hard and working together it shouldn’t be a problem, with a final point on how we need to keep everything in front of Dalton as going backwards isn’t his thing. The game started and Worcester were instantly pushed back in to their own half for the first 6 minutes with Stratford on the front foot. Worcester managed to soak up the pressure and limit Stratford to the odd shot which was dealt with by Dalton, Worcester had the pressure relieved with the odd ball sent over the top by debutant Joe Baker, his grippy wet stick was working well. Each time the ball went over the top Worcester broke with pace and with Henry Jeff’s showing some of the anti-skill he’s used in previous games was causing Stratford problems unfortunately Stratford were also able to contain each attack and drive back at Worcester. This stalemate was broken with a fine display of passing Henry Jeff’s stripped the ball from the Stratford midfield and found Matt Hooper breaking down the right. Hooper held the ball up and fed it back to Henry and with a simple triangle Ollie Ranscombe passed the ball across the D for Worcester to take the lead with a simple tap in for Ben Martin on the back post.

With Worcester now in control of the tempo of the game started to play the ball through the midfield and when required throwing long balls over the top to keep Stratford guessing. This helped to create space in the midfield and allow Worcester to play the ball around finding Puggy, Sam Glass and Henry Jeff’s in space and able to attack the Stratford D with a short corner awarded for loose stick tackle Hooper was keen to test his new stick but had to settle for being the decoy as the ball was pushed straight to Watling, as the skipper was about to strike the ball the umpire gave a toot on the whistle and sent a Stratford player to the halfway line for breaking early now Hooper had his chance and called the play. Puggy lined up and slapped the ball out. It seemed that this slap was hit with slightly less power than normal and while the ball travelled towards Hooper the Stratford Keeper was also at the top of the D waiting for the ball to arrive. Hooper managed to get the ball into Henry Jeff’s who was tackled in front of the goal the scramble for the ball saw it pushed away for a side line hit.

With the game being played predominately in the middle 3rd of the pitch Worcester were limiting the Stratford chances and making a few of their own. As Stratford broke down the right of the pitch James Neal intercepted and passed the ball off to Joe Baker who launched an A bomb which is often described as a squarial the ball went over the fence bounced around a few cars, luckily no damage to anyone or anything in the area. Joe was heard saying “I’ve never done that before, it must have been the wind” Are you sure Joe??? Moving on to another Joe… Joe Hughes had been sized up by his opposite number and the Stratford midfielder had spotted something of interest and on the next Worcs advance managed to tackle Hooper and seemed to grab hold of Joe for a split second on the way past. No one really saw what happened but with Joe Hughes now not moving much and not really paying attention Worcester soon realised the Stratford player had saw the switch and turned Joe off.

The next attack was kept on the astro and with a nice break Worcester found Ollie Davis on the top of the D and the ball sat up nicely for Ollie to hit a missile at the keeper, the keeper who did try but couldn’t get out of the way of the ball quick enough and was caught square on the pads. The little squeak on impact only confirmed the power Ollie had put in to his shot. With the keeper struggling to breath, Sam Glass was first to react and scored his 5th goal in 5 games. 2-0 Worcester. With half time looming Worcester broke and Hooper found a little bit of space to attack the D with Stratford players chopping at the ball he broke the first tackle and with no whistle he tried to get the shot away but unfortunately missed the target….. again… the drought continues!

Half time 0-2 Worcester

Watling gave a positive team talk and was keen to keep the work rate going and not let the good work go to waste. The 2nd team responded and continued to work hard. Henry Jeff’s having worked really hard in the first half continued to press the Stratford midfield and defenders with tireless running and was rewarded with a goal from open play again Worcester moving the ball quick to create an opening for Henry to put the ball away and make it 3-0 Worcester. With Stratford now struggling to keep up with the Worcester pace, Worcs got another short corner and Sam Glass was called into the play. The ball came out on target to Hooper to stop, with the ball trapped dead, Sam Glass launched a flick which went high into the goal and with Worcester celebrating the umpire blew the whistle again and judged the ball to be outside the D when released. With only 1 person believing that to be the case, it was just a shame that it was the only person who’s opinion matters. Worcester maintained their impeccable discipline and regrouped having had the goal disallowed.

Worcester’s fitness was really beginning to show and in the last 20 mins of the second half it was all one way traffic and Worcester making chances from both sides of the pitch but not managing to get the final touch to finish the moves off. This started to frustrate the Stratford players as they were chasing shadows for long periods but with a misplaced pass the Stratford forward line attacked the D and with no Worcester defender in the vicinity Dalton decided he would sort this mess out, he charged out of his goal mouth the forward changed direction and with Dalton diving low to his right manage to tackle the forward with the cleanest of picks and with a certain amount of style stood up and knocked the ball to Watling at right back and was seen waving his hands like he was playing a game of GTA towards his rather lazy defenders.

The final action saw Worcester in control and comfortable in possession with one final attack with Sullivan, Puggy and Ollie Davis passing in perfect Sync lit the spark in Joe Hughes once more thinking he was on for more action and another goal and with his switch repositioned to ON he jumped on to the ball at the top of the D turned the defender to make space and just as he was about to shoot a great tackle deflected the ball wide there was no time for a long corner but Worcester were happy to see out the game 4-0.
Man of the match went to Joe Sullivan for a top performance in midfield and well deserved. His prize was to bake a cake.
With a week of many candidates for the DOD award it was decided that there would multiple winners/losers this week.
Ben martin was very unlucky to win the players vote for outright DOD (a small rumour it might have been rigged)
Tom Dalton
Ollie Davis
Were also on the list and will also have to make some kind of offering for the final time this year. Saturday will also see the golden oven gloves awarded for worst baker this year so the pressure is on.